As much as I like Christian Bale, it is a bizarre sight to see the man who played a grim Batman in three movies, a guy who axed people to death to the tunes of Huey Lewis and the News, the guy who lost half his body weight for The Machinist, and the guy who played a meth addict in The Fighter jovially frolicking on the beach with Natalie Portman. It's for a movie, of course: Knight of Cup, from Terrence Malick, who is about to double his directing output of 45 years in just four, with The Tree of Life, To the Wonder, Knight of Cups, and another untitled film he's in post-production on.

Knight of Cups, according to The Playlist, is far enough along that footage will be screened at Cannes, and that movie also features Cate Blanchett, Freido Pinto, Antonio Banderas, Teresa Palmer, and Nick Offerman, among others. Like all Malick films, it will be a meditation on ... something.

Either way, it's a bizarre sight to see Christian Bale go happy-go-lucky on the beach, and there's plenty of similar pictures from the set of the film below. Here's hoping tomorrow brings Michael Shannon scarfing down cotton candy on a ferris wheel.

Oh wow. I just looked at the pictures before reading and said to myself "looks like Terrence Malick to me." No I am not clairvoyant, seriously... you can just tell this will be a beautifully filmed montage with some light music and a voice over.

Shall we place bets?

koko temur

Nope, still looks creepy.

btw - freiDO pinto?

superasente

I know you guys have a thing about beards around here, but Bale with facial-hair (new band name) is gross.

Fabius_Maximus

Well, it's not even a proper beard. It looks more like dirt on his face.